Baltic financial institution Hansabank will be the exclusive broker partner for Auerbach Grayson & Company, Inc. in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the two companies announced Wednesday.
Auerbach Grayson, a New York-based brokerage firm that specializes in international trading for US institutional investors, operates through a global network of local partners that now extends to 94 nations. Hansabank, with headquarters in Tallinn, Estonia, has a one-third share of the Baltic banking market. It is a subsidiary of Swedbank in Stockholm, Sweden.
Under the arrangement with Auerbach Grayson, Hansabank provides English-language company research on Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian companies, as well as access to the local stock exchanges.
Among the approximately 70 listings on Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius are Eesti Telekom (telecommunications), SAF Tehnika (telecom equipment), Merko Ehitus (construction), Snaige (household appliances), and Latvijas Gaze (natural gas). Combined market capitalization of all stocks traded on the three exchanges is more than EUR10 billion, a figure that compares with EUR6.6 billion at the end of 2003, an increase of more than 50 percent.
Lauri Lind, head of equities, said Hansabank is well placed to serve the needs of U.S. institutional investors with consistent, in-depth research and analysis of companies in the Baltic countries.
“As new members of the European Union, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are receiving increasing attention from investors, and we are pleased to facilitate the growing amount of portfolio activity,” Lind said.